1989 Mustang Notchback

True Street-or Wild Street as it is sometimes called-is a torture test for the street-going 5.0 and 4.6 Mustangs across America. Offered at FFW, WFC, COTT, NMRA, and other venues, this test of man and machine asks the ultimate from its competitors-survive the rigors of a 30-mile street cruise and then come back to the racetrack for a three-round cookoff! True Street ends with a best-of-three-run average, which places a premium on performance as well as consistency. Wild Street asks its racers to come back for a second day, where the competitors go heads-up on a pro-tree to decide who has the baddest street car in America. Did we mention you can't tune the car or cool it down during those initial three runs?

While regulars of the Mustang scene know all about True Street, its evil sister Wild Street seems to be growing in popularity because of the strategy involved and the true racing eliminations (as opposed to a calculator deciding the champion). Driven to find America's fastest street 'Stang, the early True Street event brought out some truly amazing talent. But, as time and technology took hold of the class, the pace of what a competitive True Streeter had to run really picked up.

Texan Charles Pogue was the first to bust into the 8-second-zone True Street, topping it off with a string of 8.60s before hanging up his Mustang spurs. In Wild Street, Willie Figueroa of UPR brought the class into the low-8-second zone with 8.20s and an undefeated record. Since Willie's retirement from WFC's Wild Street, Mike Keenan, Shane Faught, Greg LaPoint, Anthony Dickson, Nick Owens, and others have taken this class into the 8.00-8.20 range. Folks, that may well be the wildest collection of cars on the face of the planet.

Smack dab in the middle of the outrageous Wild Street show is this bright-blue notchback with the funky hood, owned by Eric Stubbs of Pasadena, Texas. Eric is no newcomer when it comes to True/Wild Street competition. He began preparing the '89 notchback in 1995, and by 1996 the car was hot enough to finish third in that year's FFW Houston True Street class.

"I used to read about those guys-Charles Pogue, Mike Murillo-all of them," Eric says. "Then I met Charles, learned from him, worked hard at building the car, and here I am-racing these guys!"

We could have written another "here is the history, here are the parts, here is what he runs" story. Instead, we asked Eric to take us inside the head of a Wild Street racer (a scary place, no doubt!). Most fans see the three back-to-back runs, but they don't know what it's like out on the cruise or what these guys go through to prepare and maintain their Mustangs. So, with a little coaxing, Eric began to draw us a picture of what life is like for a Wild Street racer on race weekend.

Eric says it has taken him years to get his combination to this level. After flirting with a twin-turbo setup and Job Spetter tuning, he switched back to his trusty Vortech supercharger. Preparation for race day takes a lot more attention to detail than the average hobbyist would ever imagine. Remember, these cars are in competition from the moment they leave the track (to go on the cruise) until that third qualifier is over. Eric says one of the most important things is to have a safe tune in the car-you simply can't max out the combination on the first pass, endure and retain the heat in the engine and trans, and think that the razor's-edge tune won't pop head gaskets, or worse.